Paramount Views On Color

Agfa recognizes that color approval is moving earlier in the workflow and communications between providers of color jobs and their clients is crucial to achieving satisfactory results.

Challenges need to be addressed, including calibration of color independent devices, continued development and acceptance of color standards like ICC, and education to further the understanding and parameters of digital color. Also, the digital environment has opened up the industry to less specialization; a specific color task, once a tradesperson’s job, is now being done at the design stage. Therefore the need for transparent, user-friendly color communications tools is more critical than ever before.

Our clear vision is to build a workflow where consistent color output is confidently achievable time and time again. Agfa will continue efforts to develop solutions that address these challenges.

KODAK PROFESSIONAL
Finally, the pieces are in place for color management to become a reality. I know you have heard this proclamation before, but consider the following:

With the impending release of Adobe Photoshop 5.0, all of the major desktop publishing applications will be ICC compliant. All of these software vendors have either licensed Kodak’s color management developer tools, developed their own CMS or are using the CMS offered in Apple Color-Sync.

In addition to these applications, several RIP and OPI server vendors offer CMS in their products.

The use of and demand for ICC profiles continue to grow as does the need for tools which can be used to accurately make profiles for all kinds of devices. There are now a number of different professional profiling products, like Kodak’s ColorFlow family of software.

What’s the biggest challenge ahead? In a word: training. Color management is not an easy concept and it’s certainly not a shrink wrapped solution. Sure, you can buy the most robust set of profiling tools and measuring instruments, but if you don’t know how to integrate the use of these profiles into your unique workflow, what good are they?